


Colors

by writing_ramblings



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Colors, Flowers, Fluff, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, Secret Admirer, Some angst at the end, a lot of description and hardly any diologue, pinning, wanted to try out something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-21 03:58:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13732656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_ramblings/pseuds/writing_ramblings
Summary: Gabriel has a secret admirer that leaves flowers in places he can only seem to come across.





	Colors

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this last year and kept going back to it until I was satisfy since I, personally, prefer more dialogue than descriptive paragraphs, so this is more like a test. Hope you enjoy :)

The first flower was a yellowish brown Mum. It stood out round, full, and colorful between Gabriel’s shotgun and its sheath. It was as dirt colored as the mountains of Route 66, or the color of old coffee stains in the dinner. The color of hope, of a new beginning. Of leaving behind days under the scorching desert sun. Jack and Ana had seen it before him when they went to the armory, and teased him about it to no end. The petals were crooked, and it seemed one or two were missing. The twig of it about to break apart, but the little flower held up enough for him to see it. Enough to let him know he had caught someone’s interest.

He almost threw it away, but saw how delicate it was, how it must have hold on through sweaty palms, and the shift from one hand to the other as the secret admirer thought about leaving it or not, over and over until they shoved it in the sheath and ran before they were seen. It wouldn’t hurt to keep it by his desk, giving the little thing a good view of the ocean as it ceased.

His gaze kept drifting to the flower the next day as he worked; it was starting to darken. It reminded him of the dirt under his knees during his last mission, and Jesse McCree’s wet hair, dripping down his face. Of his cowboy hat almost escaping through the waves of the ocean before Gabe caught it and shoved it on the younger man’s head. He still remembers the yellow-brown petals clearly. A color that meant a wild heart, running towards the horizon, trying to escape a rogue life. He thought of western settings and horses shaking their manes. When Jesse McCree’s face comes again, he tosses the poor thing into the trash bin.

\---

It has been a while since Gabriel sat down and actually read something for pleasure. The pile of books by his office couch grew with every recommendation, gift and books that caught his eye from the Blackwatch study. It has been a month since he last read something and was about 100 pages away from finishing it. Once he found a time where he wasn’t busy or tired, he grabbed the top paperback from the stack and relaxed on the couch to begin his reading. The book fell open on the page he had dog eared, but a new addition to the text kept him from moving. A second flower was pressed on the right page, the pink petals of the Zinnia contrasting against the cream pages. Gabriel picked it up to admire it. The pink of it reminded him of the smell of spring, of young love. Strawberry ice cream on his tongue. The brush strokes on a morning sky when he and Jesse woke up after taking shelter in Numbani. The blush on Jesse’s cheeks when he woke up and looked up, cheek pressed to Gabriel’s chest, but a smile on his chapped lips.

Part of him was bothered that someone went through his things in his office when he wasn’t present. But then he realized they only came to leave a flower, an innocent act, nothing else seemed out of place, damaged or stolen. Yet he found himself more into the idea of who. He checked the history of his door scanner and showed only Jack and Ana appeared, the only ones that have access to his office when he’s not inside. But he knows well neither of them would go through this just to leave him a flower, especially if they’re aware he’ll know who it is.

His hope said another name: Jesse. This was kind of something the cowboy would do. Leave traces of him in places only Gabe and him would know, and then reveal himself. But Gabriel doesn’t want to think much of him like this. He doesn’t toss this one, he keeps it as a bookmark for the book, which he read about 40 pages that day and left it forgotten when the next wave of busy work came.

\---

He bumped into Jesse in a hallway a week later. “Sorry, boss,” the cowboy mumbles. “My mind’s elsewhere.” He solutes his commander with a smirk on his face, and keeps walking as he starts whistling.

Gabe slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket a few minutes later, and found the third flower. More alive than the other two, recently cut. He looked back, hoping to see Jesse’s still around, but he was not even in the same hallway he had encountered his agent. His heart raced and his cheeks flushed as he faced the flower again. This one was more yellow than the first one, a Daisy.

Yellow like the sun that reflects on Jesse’s smile. Yellow is Jesse’s laughter and the vibration of his chest against Gabriel’s arm when the cowboy shares a joke. The way Jesse’s eyes twinkle under shimmering lights, shifting to gold. When Jesse dyed his hair blonde for a mission at a beach and Gabe hated to admit he loved it. Loved the way Jesse looked more energized, like a fresh new movie star. How the drops of water ran down his naked, tanned chest. The thirst Gabriel had in his throat when it comes back, making him swallow and lick his parched lips. Yellow reminds him of Jesse’s rushed, warm breath, and salty wet lips as he gave Gabriel the kiss to bring him back to life after their target snuck up on the commander in the water. Yellow is the sun behind Jesse when Gabe opened his eyes and swore it was a halo.

The flowers kept coming and Gabriel never had the courage to say anything. One, he wasn’t sure if it was Jesse, he could’ve planted that one flower in his pocket for someone else. Even if every other place he found flowers on said ‘Jesse McCree’. Like the one between the cushions of his favorite booth in a bar near base. A cozy small place Gabriel likes to get lost in and Jesse was one of the few to know. Or the other one hidden in his secret stash of Pop-Tarts, which he saw Jesse eating out of once. He kept finding them in nooks and crannies over base, spaces no one thinks of looking, but he happens to come across because his admirer knows Gabriel pays attention to certain details and his surroundings. If he has been in a place before and returns, he’ll know if something’s new.

\---

He woke up one morning in winter and did his usual routine, until he reached to grab the scarf he had use the night before and put it back on the drawer. He hesitates at first, wondering if he’ll find a treasure, and if he doesn’t look, it might die in there. He unfolds the scarf and sees it, a light blue Himalayan Poppy, a little dry, crooked and wrinkled. And Gabriel knows it was placed there the night before.

He picks up the fragile new addition in his hand and tries to softly straighten the petals as much as he can. Just by touching it, he feels the cold from their icy blue color. Light blue like the kiss he shared with Jesse under the freezing snow the night before. Both covered in clothes from head to toe, but frostbite still reached Gabriel’s nose and Jesse’s ears. They were out to get some last minute treats for Ana’s dinner party and had let time fly through them. This is how it felt, sharp, light blue. As blue as a summer’s clear sky. Light enough to get Gabriel off his feet and soar through the clouds. Light like Jesse’s laughter during morning hours. Like the first gush of fresh air to Gabriel’s lungs when he steps off a plane. Like the way his heart beats when he jumps into the unknown, with Jesse by his side. And the way it was beating last night when they waited in line outside the bakery shop to pick up some treats Ana had ordered. The glass window was decorated with Christmas stickers, including a mistletoe one. The line moved and McCree pointed at it when it was by their side.

“It’s just a sticker,” Gabriel said to Jesse, but also to himself when his heart pumped against his chest.

“And? I noticed two couple kissed ahead after looking at it,” Jesse pointed out and Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was being serious.

“ _Couples_ ,” Gabriel cleared.

“It’s tradition, jefe,” Jesse pointed out. “It’s part of the fun of the holidays. Besides, I’m freezing and could use some warming up.”

Gabriel scoffed and rolled his eyes as he turned away to the glass. The sticker was bright green and red. More in a cute style than realistic. He looked through the glass at the people inside. The small bakery was packed. The line reached outside, where they were, and a few people were inside, looking cozy as they drank coffee and had something sweet to eat. Gabriel envied them in the moment.

His gaze fell on Jesse’s reflection, who was looking at him. The commander sighed and asked, “Why would you like to kiss an old man like me?”

Jesse raised an eyebrow, as if it was obvious, “Why _wouldn’t_ I? It’s all I asked for Christmas this year. Wanna help a guy get his wish?”

Gabriel looked away when he felt a blush forming on his cheeks. His toes curled and his lips went too dry, causing him to lick them as he looked back at Jesse. The cowboy trailed the motion with his gaze and it was enough of an invitation for him to lean in. There had been something about being trapped between the glass and Jesse that Gabriel liked too much.

The kiss was sharp and cold. It shut down his senses and made his body numb. It was over too quickly and then the line moved.

\---

The next flower was also blue, but it wasn’t a treasure waiting to be found. Jesse gave it to him a month after their winter kiss. The agent brought his mission report and a small pod of vibrant blue Sweet Peas along. “No point in hidin’ anymore, right?” The cowboy pointed out with a raised eyebrow and half a smile. The soft scent of the flowers reached Gabriel’s nose and he was enamored by the gift and the cowboy in front of him. “Are you likin’ my gifts, _sweetpea_?”

Gabriel huffed a laugh as he nodded, “I like finding them.” He turned around and walked towards his window to place the pod on the frame. He touched one of the petals, and it’s like thin, slick paper between his thumb and finger.

The color splashed in the grays of his office and clothes. They were as blue as the wall in Dorado Gabriel had pinned Jesse after he thought he’d lost the cowboy during a mission. It was blue like Jesse’s breathless calls that Gabe kissed away in the alley while people celebrated in the colorful streets around them. It reminded him of the blueberry taste on Jesse’s mouth after eating his favorite candy, and the sticky feeling of the cowboy’s lips when they pull away. The ocean that separates them sometimes, the smell of the breeze during their late night walks and talks, and moments like these that contrast with his hectic days and sleepless nights.

He returned to his office one morning and was surprised by the new pod added to his window frame. It’s full of Purple Pansies and they had to be his favorite. The white background on the petals made the patches of dark and light purple look like drops of ink on milk. Like the love bites Jesse leaves over Gabriel’s collarbones and hips. The cowboy’s own way to drop ink on Gabriel’s body and make it pop. Purple was their bruised lungs after moaning the other’s name until dawn. The way they cling to each other after a hard day and Jesse kisses stars in his eyelids. Like the tints of purple between black strokes of the nights when they count stars and Jesse’s hand is tucked in his. Not to mention they’re something now. They haven’t quite talked about it, but they kiss and hug like they are.

\---

Reyes was getting ready for a gala he and Jack were invited for one night. Morrison was taking Ana as his plus one since she was his second in command, while Gabriel was taking Jesse, because he wanted him to get accustomed to these things when he becomes his second in command. The cowboy had proven himself since he joined, and Gabriel knew he has it in him to take over when Reyes isn’t around. Even if they weren’t a thing and the cowboy wasn’t decorated his room and office with different colored petals.

“I got us something to match,” Jesse turned to Gabriel after fixing his brown tie. Gabriel also had one, but his had an elegant pattern, while Jesse’s was plain chocolate brown. When Gabriel noticed the cowboy’s hands, he was holding two brown Peonies. When he stepped closer to Gabriel and placed it on his tuxedo, he realized they were fake, but still looked lovely. It was like their own thing, for people to know they were together and proud to show it.

“They reminded me of you,” Jesse had started while pinning one to Gabriel’s tuxedo jacket. “Beautiful as your eyes under the sunlight. Soft as your gaze when you look at me under the moonlight.” And nothing else could compare to such definition of brown.

\---

“What’d you wanna do for the rest of the night?” Jesse asked with a wicked grin as they entered the hotel room they were staying during an undercover mission, which they had finished early and had free hours before pick up.

Gabriel sighed as he rubbed his face. The mission was a success, but the way they did it didn’t played well with the UN and he knew he would have them on his ass in the morning. “I just wanna rest, Jesse.”

The wickedness faded from Jesse’s gaze, but he still smiled, “Don’t blame ya. Put on a movie, I’ll go get us a pizza.”

When he returned, Gabriel was already in his pajama pants, resting from the bed’s headboard and a movie paused in the TV. Jesse placed the box of pizza on the bed before changing while Gabriel grabbed drinks from the mini fridge. Once both snuggled again, a light orange Carnation came to Gabriel’s view, and a smile formed on his mouth. “The place’s crawling with them,” Jesse commented as Gabriel took it and leaned his head back against Jesse.

He twirled the flower in his fingers, admiring the light, kind of sweet color. Fruity and fresh, like the smell of Jesse’s neck. Sweet and tingly, like the taste of the peaches and cream cake Jesse made him a few weeks ago. It takes him to the mornings they crave natural fruit and squeeze oranges in the kitchen, when Gabriel does most of the squeezing and Jesse wraps his arms around his waist from behind and peppers delicious kisses over his shoulder and back.

\---

“It was our last night together,” Jesse’s hard voice said to Gabriel’s back. “And you spent it cooped up in your damn office.”

Gabriel admired the podded flowers on the window frame, the variety of colors collected over the months, before turning to Jesse. “You’ll be back.”

“If this were two years ago, you’d be clinging to me like the world was gun’ end,” Jesse recalled, and his voice is hard, and hurt.

“And I learned it doesn’t,” Gabriel said, but he regretted his words when Jesse grimaced and stepped back. “I trust that you’ll come back to me.”

“I ain’t immortal, Reyes!” No ‘Gabe’ nor sweet pet names. “And, I don’t know what you got goin’ on in that head of yers, but neither are you! The world could end for me today, or tomorrow. And the last image I have of you is walkin’ in yer office!”

Gabriel walked across his room—their room— slowly to not make his lover flinch. His hand went to Jesse’s cheeks before he spoke, “I’ve been busy, Jesse, and I understand.”

“Busy with yer damn theories, and whatever you and O’Deorian are workin’ on,” Jesse turned his head away.

“She’s helping me find a way for the UN to give us more funding—”

“Let me guess, for her department?” Gabriel’s mouth closed and Jesse shook his head. “Yer not the Gabriel I fell in love with. And I’m trying so goddamn hard to trust you, but it’s hard when I’m sleepin’ alone in yer cold ass bed!”

“It was one night—”

“It wasn’t the first,” Jesse corrected. “And you better let me know if it won’t be the best because I ain’t goin’ through that again.” The door quaked the floor when Jesse slammed it. The echo remained in Gabriel’s brain for minutes after Jesse left.

Once he knew it safe to move, he made his way back to his office, with an ache in his chest that he tried to ignore. But it got worse when he spotted a red rose on top of his desk. It was like one of its thorns pierced right through his chest. He sat behind his desk and only watched the offering, ignoring the pending e-mails blinking in his computer screen and reports under the rose.

He took it with one hand, careful of the thorns, and touched the petals with the other. They were velvet and soft, like Jesse’s voice. There was something bitter and fierce about the sight, like the times they argue, when words burn until morning, like today. But also like the passionate kisses in hidden corners. The breathless I’m sorry’s and I love you’s between their lips. The hot sauce on Gabe’s mouth during their anniversary dinner date two weeks ago, with Jesse’s face over candle light like a dream. The red plaid shirt Jesse left one morning and Gabe put on because he missed his lover who had parted to another land that day on a lone mission. Red is the love they made when Jesse came back and the shirt never left Gabriel’s room.

 ---

Years later, Reaper’s out for a stroll in Dorado. Hiding in the dark corners, smoking and drifting around the lamp lights and forming again in the dark streets. He’s not sure what he’s looking for, but he was feeling too tight in the motel room with Sombra blabbing away in front of her laptop to remain there any longer. Reaper isn’t even sure if she was talking to him or herself, or someone inside her device. Either way, he slipped through the gap under the door and appeared near a familiar blue wall. He keeps moving, ignoring that door to his past.

He walks over the colorful city, taking a breather and easing his mind. It’s hard to do it these days after rumors of Overwatch forming again. It had strike something in him, he covered it with rage, and put himself to work harder. Now that he doesn’t need sleep, he spends those extra hours plotting and working. Sometimes it feels like he needs to, like a missing piece. That’s when O’Deorian reminds him he’s not human anymore.

He turns around to go back and a few steps in, his boot comes across something soft and squishy that wasn’t there before. He looks down and sees a flower, dark red, almost black. If he hadn’t stepped on it, he would have mistaken it for the wisps of smoke that sometimes fall of him when he’s not focused enough to keep himself together.

He leans down to pick up the Hellebores and rests in his palm. His chest tightens when he realizes it’s squished and misshaped. A loss. But before he drops it, he looks ahead of him, where a trail of these laid, as if he left leathery petals himself instead of smoke and ashes.

He looks around and makes sure no one is near. It’s like all those years back. His secret admirer leaving these gifts around his old base without a trace. Reaper hadn’t even heard anything; no drawling laugh or giggling spurs.

On his way back, he picks up a few and keeps them hidden in his coat, until he passes by a flower shop that has small flowers growing from mason jars in the front. He grabs one and drops the container. Sombra’s still on her laptop, rambling to herself, when he returns to their room. He asks for a hair band and she hands one over without even looking. He tears a piece of the curtain, which has seen better days, and covers the mouth of the jar before placing the band around the neck.

The flowers won’t make it until morning, but it’ll be enough to keep them safe as he watches them while Sombra sleeps. It’ll be like memories kept in a jar, scenes replaying in his head as he tries to figure out what did the gunslinger wanted to tell him. Was it a goodbye? The color is almost black, like a symbol for a void. Of what Reyes has become, and that he will never accept Reaper was once his lover. Or was this a ‘see you soon’? Years after receiving nothing, these ones reach him. A start of something they once had. Kindling the flame that burnt Reyes to be what he is, and these flowers grow from the ashes to begin a new cycle.

 


End file.
